After handing No. 2 Duke its first loss of the season last Friday, Syracuse (7-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) jumped five spots to No. 14 in the latest Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I Coaches Poll released on Tuesday. The Orange traveled to Durham, North Carolina on Sept. 27 and knocked off the Blue Devils 2-1 in double overtime behind Charlotte de Vries’ game-winning goal, her ninth of the season.

SU’s victory against Duke was its second win over a ranked opponent this season and propelled the Orange to their highest ranking since Oct. 23 of last year.

The Orange have won four of their last five matches. A Laura Graziosi overtime goal — when the sophomore stopped SJ Quigley’s penalty corner insertion, took two steps to the right and fired a shot past St. Joseph’s Victoria Kammerinke — helped SU defeat then-No. 14 St. Joseph’s 2-1. Syracuse’s only loss in the past five games came against No. 8 Virginia, even though SU out-shot the Cavaliers by four.

“We did have periods of play where we played really well,” senior Claire Webb said about the loss to Virginia. “Learning from that game, fixing up some things and then just bringing the parts where we played well into Friday.”

Through two ACC games, the Orange sit in a four-way tie for second but are no longer the lowest-ranked conference team like they were in the preseason — Boston College (No. 17) and Wake Forest (No. 20) are both below SU now. de Vries’ sits fourth in the conference in goals, third in points, and second in shots on goal, and has become the focal point of the Syracuse offense almost sixth months after committing to the program. 

She’s been the Roos Weers replacement the Orange needed for competing in the ACC, annually one of the toughest field hockey conferences in the country. Weers tallied 11 goals last season, and de Vries is now on pace for 18. Goalie Sarah Sinck also sits first in the ACC with 3.63 saves per game (29 total), eight of which came against the Blue Devils last Friday.

The Orange continue their four-game road trip with a pair of games in Berkeley, California this weekend against Cal (3-6, 0-1 Pac-12) and No. 16 Stanford (6-5, 1-0).